Fear and Laundry (30 page)

I still didn’t know what to do with my life, but my grades had kept up pretty well, so it seemed likely I would at least graduate. I was pulling in a fairly consistent ‘B’ average and thinking of joining Jake at Carreen College in the fall.

I’d apologized to Alma and she’d forgiven me right away. Even so, I’d pledged to cover a week’s worth of laundry shifts for her whenever she wanted, so she could take a long overdue and well-earned vacation.

And speaking of apologies, I’d seen Dustin at the Maribel and he’d told me he was sorry for the way he’d treated me. I’d told Jake, and he’d admitted he’d run into Mike Tran at Rick’s Records a while back. When Mike confronted him about trying to break Dustin’s face at the Housewives show, Jake had told him why he’d done it. Mike had said he understood, that he knew what a “tool” his brother could be, and that he’d pass the message along to Dustin. I guessed he had.

Ridley hadn’t bothered me or Lia again. She said “hello” to me in the halls sometimes, but still glared at Lia. I decided I’d have to work on getting the two of them to patch things up one of these days.

Clyde 2 was still super cranky.

And I still talked to Melina and Alex. In fact, I saw the Kalivas twins coming up the hall right then, Alex carrying a bouquet of carnations.

“Here she comes,” said Elyse, and started snapping pictures.

It was Halloween weekend, the opening night of Carreen High’s 3-night performance of
Dracula
. Lia appeared at the backstage door, no longer dressed as Mina Harker but still wearing traces of her stage makeup.

“Bravo!” called John, applauding, while Lia blinked against her mother’s camera flash.

“These are for you,” I said, pushing the roses at Lia, “From Jonathan.” He’d wanted to give them to her himself, but we’d been waiting for Lia so long he’d had to take a bathroom break.

Alex laid the carnations in Lia’s arms, on top of the roses, and told her that her performance was great. Lia basked in the adulation, craning her neck above the pile of flowers to beam at us.

When Jonathan came back from the bathroom we all trooped out into the parking lot, on our way to a late celebratory dinner. It was no surprise the night was windy, but it was sprinkling, too, which was crazy because it hardly ever rained in Carreen. I congratulated Lia when we’d reached the Dart. She thanked me and then, spotting her brother waiting by the van a little distance away, hugged me and said she’d see me at the restaurant.

I jogged over to Jake, holding my play program over my head to keep the rain off. He’d watched the play from the auditorium balcony with me but refused to come backstage because he was still avoiding his dad.

“Hey, you,” I said.

He’d told me Lia was right, he was always interested in me. He said the night I came into his bedroom to talk, he was pleased I was finally making a move on him (“I was not,” I said). He’d always thought we had a lot in common but hadn't known just how much until we'd talked about school and life and everything. He said he never thought he’d find someone who really understood him and that he understood in return, so he was super happy. Having just ditched school and still being in an impetuous mood, he’d decided to take a chance and tell me how he felt about me the next day. That’s why he’d wanted to come with Lia and me to the Agricultural Pioneers Center and asked if I was seeing anyone. But then I’d gotten so upset talking about Dustin that he’d backed off, thinking it wouldn’t be right to ask me out or anything. He hadn’t wanted it to seem like he was taking advantage of the situation.

And the next time I’d seen him, I’d been with Alex.

Lia felt kind of bad about it. Like maybe she’d come between me and Jake by introducing Alex to the mix. But she was just trying to cheer me up after Dustin, she said, by trying to help me find a nice guy I could be happy with. I told her I knew all that and appreciated it.

Anyway, Jake still drove me to school. And I saw him in the evenings whenever I could. It wasn’t always easy because we were both so busy, but when we were
together, it was great. He was right, we understood each other. And although the strength of my feelings for him, and his for me, still frightened me sometimes, I knew I could trust him. And myself.

He came over to my house for dinner pretty often. Mom loved him. She thought he had “nice manners” and said she could tell he really cared about me. I was impressed she refrained from telling me she’d told me so.

“Hey yourself, beautiful,” Jake said to me now. He had rain in his hair (it’d gotten pretty long; almost to his collar) and on his clothes. He’d grown the beard out a little and it looked good. He put his hand on my waist and drew me to him, kissing me deeply. “Why’d Lia run off?” he asked afterward. “I wanted to congratulate her.”

I told him if he wanted to talk to his sister, he’d have to come to dinner with me and his family. He didn’t want to, but I told him he at least had to drive me to the restaurant because Lia and everyone else had just taken off and left me behind. Lightning flashed. The rain started to come down harder, forcing him to make a quick decision. He looked at me, knowing he’d been tricked, but deciding to just smile and go along with it.

“Ready?” he asked when we were in the van.

I fastened my seat belt and said “Yes.”

Acknowledgments

I
sincerely thank:

You, for buying and/or reading this book!

Melissa Studdard, professor of English and Creative Writing at Lone Star College-Tomball; Calliope, the Creative Writing Club of LSC-Tomball; Dr. Steven Prewitt; Jessica Weisel; Sara Duncan; and Susan LaFont for encouragement and support.

David Lynch, Trent Reznor, John Hughes, Tanith Lee, PJ Harvey, Bret Easton Ellis, Clive Barker, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, Ariel Gore, Jim Munroe, Brenda Ueland, Chris Baty and NaNoWriMo, and countless others for their art and inspiration.

The Coca Cola Company, whose tasty caffeinated beverages essentially fueled the creation of this book.

 My mother, Olga, for being a great mom and always supporting me.

Last and most, I thank my husband, Steven Myles, for his unwavering support of and enthusiasm about this book. Thanks, Steve, for the many hours spent reading and re-reading various drafts, and for the many, many discussions about them. And of course for creating an awesome cover. There’s not enough room here to a catalogue all the other ways you’ve helped me out over the years, so I’ll just say “thanks for everything” and hope you know what I mean. There’s no way on earth this book would ever have existed without you, for so many reasons. I love you. XOXO.

About the Author

E
lizabeth Myles lives in Texas. She holds an AA with a focus of study in Criminal Justice from LSC-Tomball and is pursuing a BA in Psychology from the University of Houston. She enjoys running really long distances at relatively slow speeds, listening to Nine Inch Nails pretty much constantly, and drinking copious amounts of Coke Zero. This is her first novel. Contact her at
[email protected]
and visit her on the web at
http://www.elizabeth.mylesandmyles.info/

For more information about this book (and Veronica and her friends’ continuing adventures), please also visit
http://fearandlaundry.mylesandmyles.info/

Thanks again!